With the introduction of portable hand held power saws of the reciprocating blade type sometimes known as sabre saws, jig saws, hack saws or Saws-All saws, one major problem in utilization was discovered. When starting a saw cut wholly within the material to be cut, a pilot hole had to be provided into which the blade could be inserted before the sawing could commence. This required additional tools and labor. With this inadequacy in mind several attempts have been made in the past to provide a blade with the ability to penetrate the material to be cut. One way is to use a blade with a rectilinear leading edge. The reciprocating action of the blade will try to pound its way through the material to be cut which causes excessive compression loading on the blade and subsequent blade breakage. Another blade designed to penetrate the material to be cut has all the teeth of a rake type and having the forward portion has a curvilinear form as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,480 by Doty. The combination of the raked teeth, the axial reciprocating motion and the large radius curvilinear shape prevents the teeth from cutting. When the blade is in the cutting position to penetrate the material to be cut and the saw is started, the forward motion of the blade presses the non-cutting side of the tooth against the material to be cut. The rearward or retraction portion of the cutting cycle pulls the blade teeth away from the material to be cut without penetrating or cutting the material.